ION Exchange Resins http://www.make-biodiesel.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=art...

Home Biodiesel Tutorial BioBlog Photo Gallery Video Gallery Forum

Classifieds Resources
Home Biodiesel Tutorial Dry Washing Biodiesel ION Exchange

Tutorial Ionac® Ion Exchange Resin High performance Ionac® ion exchange resins. Find products!
Menu
Oil Separators DAF Specialist Wastewater System and Equipment Suppliers www.ovivowater.com.au
Intro To
SA-77 Automatic Sampler time or flow proportional testing for analysis of oil, food or water
Biodiesel
Ingredients
Biodiesel
Recipes
Biodiesel ION Exchange Resins WARNING
Safety User Rating: / 16 Making Biodiesel requires the use of
Appleseed
Poor Best flammable, toxic liquids and strong
Reactor
caustics to make a fuel. No matter
Eco-System Written by Rickdatech what safety precautions are put in
Processor
place or what equipment you use,
More
ION exchange resins are high tech man made resins making biodiesel will never be a safe
Processors
that are capable of trapping soap molecules on the hobby and can place you, your
Processor
surface of a resin bead. Different ION exchange resins property, and your family at risk of
Upgrades
work in different ways and use different techniques to injury or even death. Make Biodiesel
Methanol
clean the biodiesel. All of them generate a new waste at your own risk.
Recovery
Water stream, the spent beads.
Washing Sign up for Email Notifications
Drying of New Articles
Biodiesel
Available Resins
Dry Washing A partial listing of the available resins:
Biodiesel
ION Amberlite bd10dry is made by Rohm and Hass
Exchange Chemical Co. Search
Resin Dowex DR-G8 made by Dow Chemical
Towers
PD206 is made by Purolite, a subsidiary of 3M
Magnesol search...
Sawdust Lewatit GF 202 is made by Lanxess
Drywash Tulsion T-45 BD made by Thermax
Dealing with Search
Byproducts
Quality Pros and Cons
Testing Each resin works in a slightly different way so there are Login
Fuel some fine differences between them. They are enough
Dispensing Username
alike from a Homebrewer’s perspective that we can lump
Drafts them all together for this discussion. They all do work
and remove the soaps from your biodiesel. They are Password
much more economical when processing with new oil
Latest Forum
than with used oil.
Posts Remember me
These resins are designed to work best on biodiesel
Order Counts (15)
with less than 500ppm of soap. That’s how much you
Discrepancy (5) usually have after the first or second wash. Commercial Forgot login?
CPVC in Processors biodiesel producers using new oil can meet the 500 ppm No account yet? Register
(3) level in unwashed biodiesel. Homebrewers using or
Methanol (7) standard single stage base method on WVO will have
Tell us about

1 of 5 12/28/2010 4:55 PM
ION Exchange Resins http://www.make-biodiesel.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=art...

Yourself (19) three to five times that much soap in our unwashed
Powered by JoomlaMe biodiesel. That means we would be using it three to five
times faster than a commercial biodiesel producer. To
make it economical, you would have to wash using some
Most Read other "wash" technique first to bring your soap levels
Single Stage down. The manufactures typically recommend an acid
Base Recipes eserification stage if you plan to use waste cooking oil.
Testing Some of these can be partially regenerated using either
Methanol for methanol or an acid, but all of them eventually become
Purity used up or spent. Once spent, you will have to find a
Appleseed way to dispose of the waste.
Biodiesel With the exception of the Lewatit GF202 the resins
Processor remove the soap by replacing the metal ion in the soap
Plans with a hydrogen ion forming FFA that is passed through
Catalysts for the resin and left in the biodiesel. That means that if you
Biodiesel have high soap levels, you will have a high acid number.
Methanol for You can check the acid number by doing a titration on
Biodiesel your finished biodiesel. There is no public data available
Drying relating soap content to finished acid numbers.
Biodiesel
Biodiesel Two problems that home brewers run into when using
Feedstock resins are "compaction" and "fouling". Compaction is
Oils caused when the beads grow in size over their normal
Two Stage lifespan and do not move up the tube adjusting for the
Acid Base increase in size. Compaction can cause ruptured resin
Recipes tubes, burst resin beads, and decreasing flow rates and
Drying Oil for eventually stopping the flow altogether. Compaction
Biodiesel requires a resettling of the beads to resolve the problem.
Eco-System This can sometimes be accheived by backflowing
Processor biodiesel through the bed at a high rate to upset the
Magnesol beads. Fouling is a coating of the top layer of resin with
Soda Keg contaminates, typically glycerin or undissolved soaps,
Resin Towers that result in flow stoppages. It is usually prevented by a
combination of increased settling times and filtering.
Backflushing with biodiesel or methanol are the usual
Highest methods for resolving fouling.
Rated Fouling can be prevented by giving the biodiesel enough
Beta Testing a time to clear up before passing over to the resin bed. In
unwashed biodiesel that has had no water introduced,
Mixing Eductor
Biodiesel the cloudiness is caused by soap particles not dissolved
Glossary in the biodiesel. Settling is the cheap way to remove the
The Biodiesel cloudiness. A major factor in getting settling to work is
pHLip Test having a wide temperature variation. As the biodiesel
chills at night more soaps become undissolved and fall
About Us
Carbide out to the bottom. When it warms up in the daytime, the
Manometer soaps dissolve back into the biodiesel and clear up. If
Eco-System you are settling in a location with little or no temperature
Processor variation you may never clear up. To get it to clear up
Wash Water you will either have to filter the undissolved soaps out
Disposal with a 10-20 micron filter or you can heat the biodiesel
Choosing a until it clears, usually 10 degrees F or so.
Water Heater
Drying
Biodiesel AmberliteTM BD10dryTM
Test Methods
for Water in AmberliteTM BD10dryTM made by Rohm and Haas is an
VO ion exchange resin. It will remove both glycerin, and
soap. It is designed to be used after glycerin separation
and before the methanol is removed. It can be
regenerated for use with glycerin removal, but not soap
removal. When it becomes saturated with soap, it must
be removed and disposed of properly.

2 of 5 12/28/2010 4:55 PM
ION Exchange Resins http://www.make-biodiesel.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=art...

Product Information Web Site

DowexTM DR-G8
DOWEXTM DR-G8 is a dried cation resin designed as a
processing aid to reduce and remove trace salts, soaps,
glycerin and other organics from a crude biodiesel
stream. This dried media will also serve as a desiccant
media to retain and remove trace water. It is designed to
be used after settling out the glycerin and removing the
methanol.
Product Information Web site

LEWATIT ® GF 202
The GF202 resin is a Sodium based macroporous
design that will remove glycerin and soap from biodiesel.
It operates as an adsorber with the glycerin sticking to
the bead and the soaps attaching to the glycerin, so it
can be regenerated by flushing with Methanol many
times. Being sodium based it does not convert soap into
FFA and introduce acid to the finished biodiesel like all
the other resins. The manufacture recommends
removing the methanol down to 0.1% before passing
through the beads. Soap levels are recommended to be
less than 500ppm. They are shipped wet and do not
swell with use like the other resins, meaning no
compaction issues. They can however foul if the
biodiesel is below 40C or if it has not sufficiently settled.
Recommended flow rates are 1-1/2 to 2 bed volumes
per hour. It is shipped in 25 liter bags and 200 liter kegs.
Pricing is about $12 per liter. The beads are shipped
wet and must be flushed with 5 bed volumes of dry
methanol before use.
Product Information Web Site

PUROLITE® PD206
Purolite® PD206 is a dry ion exchange resin that
functions as a combined desiccant and ion exchange
media it is specially formulated to enable maximum
removal of free glycerin as well as catalyst, soaps and
salts from crude biodiesel. It is designed for use after
settling the glycerin and before or after methanol
recovery. Purolite expands roughly 200% during use.
Manufactures recommeded maximum flow rate is 0.3
gallons per hour per pound of resin. Maximum
recommended soap levels are 750-1000ppm if ASTM
Acid numbers are to be met. Manufacture recommend a
tower that is three times taller than is wide to prevent
compaction and channeling. Purolite is an American
company and is aggressively marketing their product in
the US. Pricing is about $10 per pound.
Product Information Web Site

Thermax
Thermax Tulsion T-45 BD Marco is a hydrogen based
macroporous design, that will remove both glycerin and

3 of 5 12/28/2010 4:55 PM
ION Exchange Resins http://www.make-biodiesel.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=art...

soap from biodiesel. It removes the soaps by both ION

exchange and absorbtion. When the beads have
absorbed as much as they can, it can be flushed with
methanol, typically 5 bed volumes, to restore most of
their adsorption capability. It takes regeneration with
sulfuric acid to restore it to new condition. The beads
work with or without methanol removal prior to passing
through the tower. If the methanol is removed and the
soaps given time to settle, the the beads will last longer.
Maximum recommended soap levels are 2500ppm.
Recommended flow rates are 2-2.5 bed volumes per
hour. Optimal operating temperature is 85°F to 95°F.
Thermax is an Indian company with distributors in the
US including Arbor Biofuels Company. It is shipped dry
and costs about $9 per pound. For more information see
the Thermax web site.

More Links
Ion Exchange Resins for Cleaning Biodiesel: How Do
They Work?-- A two-page Tech Note from University of
Idaho about ion exchange resins, a waterless method of
cleaning biodiesel.

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking

websites

4 of 5 12/28/2010 4:55 PM
ION Exchange Resins http://www.make-biodiesel.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=art...

© Copyright 2008, 2009, 2010 Make Biodiesel dot Org-

All Rights Reserved

Powered by Joomla!. valid XHTML and CSS.

5 of 5 12/28/2010 4:55 PM